Create a Realistic Stainless Steel Background in Photoshop

Designing a realistic stainless steel background in Photoshop for use in print or web design is a rather painless process. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to make your own stainless steel effect in a few simple steps.

In Photoshop, create a new layer and name it Stainless. Select this layer and fill with a gray color. I used RGB #bebdbd

At this point you should have a pretty realistic looking stainless steel layer for your design. I wanted to go one step further. I created a new layer called Gradient. In this layer I made a gradient using white.

I changed the layer blend mode to Soft Light, and I called it a day!

Below are a few examples of what can be created using this technique by simply choosing a different color at the beginning to fill the layer with.